Gordon William Land

Memorial: Hambrook - Whiteshill Common

Regiment: Merchant Navy

Medals: 1939–45 Star, Atlantic Star, War Medal 1939–1945

Rank and number: Able Seaman

Parents: Reginald James and Elsie Minnie Land (nee King)

Marital status: Married

Home address: 74 Grenville Road, Southville, Bristol

Pre-war occupation: Factory Hand at Shell Mex BP

Date of birth: 18/04/1915

Place of birth: Frenchay, Bristol

Date of death: 02/07/1941

Buried/Commemorated at: Died at sea and commemorated on Tower Hill Memorial (Panel 109.), London and Hambrook War Memorial and St John the Baptist Church in Frenchay

Age: 26

Further information:

S.S. Toronto City (Bristol) Merchant Navy.

Gordon was the eldest of 2 children and had a younger sister Barbara. He married Ada Major in Bristol in 1937.

At 18.25 hours on 1st July 1941 the unescorted S. S. Toronto City (Master Edwin John Garlick) was hit in the bow by one G7e torpedo from U-108 about 500 miles north of the Azores and sank by the bow within three minutes. The Germans questioned 23 survivors on rafts and debris before leaving the area, but they were never seen again, the master, 37 crew members, two gunners and three meteorological office personnel were lost. The ship had been employed as a weather observation ship in the Atlantic since October 1940 and was reported missing after sending her last routine weather report at 15.00 hours on 1st July. (The Commonwealth War Graves Commission states that Gordon William Land died on 2nd July yet the ship he served on was sunk on 1st July).

Gordon Land is remembered on the Winterbourne Down face of the Hambrook Memorial.

By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):

David Blackmore - Mangotsfield Residents Association, CWGC, 1939 England & Wales Register, UK Censuses, Free BMD.
Some of this information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/1027.html